Might be slightly sour

[jeinnor40]

I am very new to this, so far only done 2 extract brews, so let me give the whole story: (Sorry it is soooo loooonnnng)

The first time I brewed was when I bought my Coopers Kit with the Lager. I made the larger and after about 14 days bottled in the bottles that came with the kit. With the making of the brew I only wiped everything down (I know now that was wrong but I figured everything would be clean already). When I bottled I applied the same process. Anways the beer turned out to be Very Sour :-(

Okay, so I learnt my lesson, bought Iodophor, Glass Bottles, Hand Sanitiser, buckets etc. I soaked everything in the buckets with the Iodophor water (1ml per litre) for 10 minutes! I also put a solution of iodophor in the coopers fermenter.

We then made the brew, let it ferment for 2 weeks, bottled it (Again all bottles and caps were sterilised in the buckets). However because I am new to this we added the priming sugar to boiling water (container was sterilised too) allowed it to cool and added the priming sugar water to the wort. I gave it a big stir (think that this might be a stuff up) and bottled.

It has been 3 weeks now, if I open a bottle and drink it slowly out of the bottle, the first half tastes nice, but as I get closer to the bottom it does taste that nice, I think the sediment at the bottom mixes with the beer. If I pour the beer into a glass, then the beer is not all that nice and almost tastes a little sour.

My question is, could it be the sediment that is making the beer not taste so nice or could it be an infection again and if so what did I do wrong?

 

[joshesmusica]

Have you tried homebrew beer before? It could possibly be the yeast sediment, if you're not used to that taste. Just pour slowly to be sure not to let the sediment into the glass. Also chill your beer for a couple days, and that will help that sediment compact a little better.
Other than that, what are your ferment temps like?
Most people boil the priming sugar and cool it like you did, so no problem there, except that it's usually better to pour that into a bottling bucket, then siphon your beer onto it from the bottom, making sure not to splash. This siphon should get the gentle stir that you need to mix the priming sugar well.
What you did was stir up a ton of yeast and then siphon that into the bottles. That's likely the weird flavor your getting is an overwhelming amount of yeast in your beer.
The big stir could've also oxidized the beer, but I don't believe that would taste sour.
Try the bottling bucket method, and if you can cold crash the beer for a couple days before bottling, and see if that helps.
P.s. If you've fermented it, it's now called beer, not wort any longer.

 

[jeinnor40]

Thanks

How slowly does one pour from the fermenter to bottling bucket? One suggestion from my local brewmaster club was that they said that the coopers kit fermenter is not all that great in their opinion and that in their experience they have never had good beer come out of that. Would you agree?


I am moving onto all grain, ordered my boil pots etc and if need be going to get other fermenting vessels.

 

[ong]

Don't drink out of the bottle -- pour carefully into a glass, and leave the last bit of beer with its yeast sediment in the shoulder of the bottle.

And when you're transferring from the fermenter to the bottling bucket, use a tube to siphon, never pour. Pouring will expose your beer to far more oxygen. And you siphon with the bottom of the tube above all the gunk at the bottom, so all that goes into the bottling bucket is clear beer.

If I were you I'd do a few more extract batches and get this process nailed down before you introduce a whole new set of problems to solve!

 

[joshesmusica]

I've never done premade extract kits like that, so I can't really be a good judge, but I never trusted them.
And agree with the above. Use a hose to siphon your beer into the bottling bucket. Try your best to not let the hose hit that bottom layer in the fermenter. I usually just follow the top of the beer as it goes down, because I don't use a racking cane. Then make sure to keep the end of the hose in the bottling bucket below the beer, if it stays at the bottom that's better as it will get a good swirl going on while you siphon which will stir up the priming sugar well enough.

 

[joshesmusica]

Also I would stick with a couple more extract batches so you can get the fermentation and bottling steps down really well. If you have an lhbs near you, google "Name of Your Favorite Craft Beer Here" extract clone. Then buy those recipes. If it has steeping grains included, that could be fun as it's almost like biab mashing.
Also look up "How to Brew" by John Palmer, it's free online, an has a ton of great stuff in it. Some of it is outdated, which is great that you're on here. Ask all the questions you want and you will get lots of answers, some of them even good answers, from the great homebrewers on here.

 

[Homercidal]

Ok, well you know lagers generally tend to want a few weeks of fermenting and a few weeks of LAGERING to get the yeast to settle down and smooth out the flavor. That's just the way lager yeast prefer to work.

For ALE yeast, you can usually go shorter on primary and shorter on a clarifying period, especially if you cold crash.

In either case, fermenting ales at 65F is a good idea and make sure to get as little yeast/trub/sediment in the bottle as possible.

If you get too much yeast in the bottle and drink it, it can affect the flavor and it's sometimes described as tartish (Although I think it depends on the beer and the particular yeast strain.)

In summary, ferment ales at around 65F and give them time to clear. Let the bottles settle and pour carefully into a glass to keep as much sediment as possible out.

This is the best advice I can give without seeing your recipe. Perhaps if we know what your ingredients are we can help even more.

 

[jeinnor40]

Well I did a coopers extract Wheat Beer, added 1kg of DME and coopers LME to 2 litres of boiling water, then added 19 Litres of Ice Cold water which brought my temp down to about 23 deg celsius (73.4 F) I added 1 packet of Safbrew WB-06. I fermented between 18-C and 22-C (64.4f - 71.6f) for 2 weeks. I then added 140g of dextrose to 1 cup of Boiling water and that sat for about an hour to cool down, not sure what temp it was when I threw that into the beer. I gave it a BIG stir as mentioned earlier.

Can someone explain what yeast tastes like?

Also if I go All Grain, what should I start with, the one book I read reckons a Pale Ale?

Thanks to everyone trying to help, really appreciate it ;-)

 

[Homercidal]

Smell yeast. That's what it tastes like.

But some yeast can give a small amount of tartness in the finish as a by-product of it's fermentation.

Also IMO Wheat beers sometimes have a slight tartness, but I wouldn't consider it more than very subtle, and I'm sensitive to it.

That yeast is for Hefeweizen and while not my favorite wheat beer style, I don't think I ever remember getting a tartness from any I've tried, at all. It's usually described as having hints of clove and banana. Fermentation temp, oxygen level, and pitching rate can affect how the flavor comes out in the end of these beers though. I can't say if there is anything I notice that would jump out as being a cause of tartness.

Maybe your water? Unless your water was excessively acidic I'd say you're not likely to get a tart or acidic flavor from your water.

 

[joshesmusica]

I think his biggest problem is that he basically drank a ton of yeast to go along with his beer. Go with the bottling bucket next time, chill your beers for a couple days before serving, then make sure to pour slowly into the glass. See if that helps. If the beer is super cloudy the yeast is likely your culprit. If it's clear then I'm prolly wrong.

 

[jeinnor40]

thanks for all your help guys, really awesome!